


Forever Marked

by prairienitro



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Dragon Age Big Bang 2015, Dragon Age Reverse Big Bang, F/M, Fluff, Little bit of angst, Vallaslin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-01
Updated: 2015-12-01
Packaged: 2018-05-04 09:06:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5328515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prairienitro/pseuds/prairienitro
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My story based off of a piece of art for the Dragon Age Reverse Big Bang.<br/>---<br/>It's been a year since the fall of Corypheus, and Aeryn Lavellan finally has time to remember - and rediscover - who she is. But sometimes the process of finding out what makes her weak also means letting someone else see past the firm shell she put in place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Forever Marked

**Author's Note:**

> Here's a link to the picture that I wrote my story on: http://mademoiselle-maple.tumblr.com/post/134464307138/my-art-for-the-dragon-age-reverse-big-bang
> 
> I just want to thank the artist (tumblr user mademoiselle-maple) for all the help she's given over the past couple weeks. I couldn't have finished this story without her. Nor would I have been able to do it without her and her awesome creativity.

Reds, oranges, and pinks painted the clouds in the setting sunlight. The blue sky was a soft shading from the inky black of night as it tried to hold on to the last scraps of the lightest blue from the day as it drifted behind the snow-capped mountains. 

By this point in the evening, most people weren't watching the sunset, let alone having the freedom to relax. Master Dennet was bedding down the horses in the stables, triple checking that they had plenty of hay, water, and grain for the night. Bonny Sims was storing away her wares and locking down her stall, even though people would be truly foolish to try to steal from her during the night. Recruits were cleaning up the training field, the surgeons were giving a final check on their patients, and Cabot was just beginning his work in the Rest, giving the people who were staying at Skyhold a relaxed and joyous atmosphere.

For most, it was a normal evening of work, but for one, it was a rarely seen break. Aeryn Lavellan - the Herald, the Inquisitor - sat perched on the stone railing of the bridge between the Commander's office and the observatory, watching the sun slowly fall and disappear as it shined the last remnants of light over the tops of the mountains.

She couldn't remember the last time she was able to relax long enough to watch the sun set. Was it before or after defeating Corypheus? Was she a member of the Inquisition, or a prisoner? Had she even left her clan yet?

The red-haired elf glanced down at her hands. It had only been a year since she sealed the rift for a final time, but her palm ached as though it were only yesterday. Aeryn grew up knowing that she had a difficult life ahead of her, being a mage and destined to be the next keeper of her clan. But she thought her hand would only ache from hard work and bestowing vallaslins, not from having a touch of the veil clinging onto her. A parasite that some viewed as the touch of a god, while she saw it as a scar.

"Having a lovely evening to your self, Inquisitor?"

Aeryn's blue eyes searched out the voice, smiling as her gaze locked with .Cullen's as he walked toward her. Even after all the years that had past between them, the good and the hardships, there were few people - elven or human - that she felt as safe or as happy with more than him. 

"I'm taking this moment before Josephine finds me and changes her mind on allowing me to have some freedoms for the evening," Aeryn whispered with a chuckle as she faced the mountains again, Cullen coming up behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist, pulling the elf into his strong chest. "I'm not sure how it was possible, but I've only managed to have somehow offend a few Orlesians."

They stayed together in silence, watching as the last bits of sunlight clung to the mountains, casting a line between the leaving day and the arriving night, purples and reds mixing together along the snow. Torches were lit, fires set, and the noises in the Rest were beginning to grow to a low hum as bards played tunes and the ale caused spirits to flow freely. No doubt Iron Bull and Sera were beginning their taunts and games early that evening, and usually Aeryn would join in on their fun, much to the surprise of visitors and recruits who didn't know the Inquisitor. Tonight, however, her mind was on the way the last bits of sunlight echoed the colors of her vallaslin.

Orange lines danced across her chin, her forehead, and her cheek bones. She sat as still as the statues that surrounded the clan's camp that evening as her keeper etched the markings for Mythal into her skin. It was slow, tedious work, but Aeryn welcomed it with open arms as each piece of ink became a part of her.

Since that evening, she had always wanted to give someone that gift. The feeling of closeness with one of their gods and with the keeper, with their people's history and with each other. It was a chance that she was more than ready for, but had never been given the opportunity. All because of the mark that she had never asked for.

"You're tense," Cullen observed, one of his hands finding Aeryn's and lacing his fingers with hers. "What is on your mind? You're supposed to be enjoying yourself."

"It's not important." Her voice was small, quiet as she brought one of her legs over the edge of the railing so she was straddling the stones. Her head was casted down, her eyes glaring down at her hands, one still clutching Cullen's while the other held a green hue to her skin. "It isn't something I would have you worry about."

Cullen's free hand reached up and clutched Aeryn's cheek, bringing her gaze up as he thumb stroked over her cheek. "You're important to me," he whispered, his eyes searching her face. "And I'll always worry about the woman who holds my heart."

"But it really isn't something for you to concern yourself over. There are more importnat things for you to have your mind on, and what is running through mine isn't one of them," Aeryn tried to laugh off, but Cullen wasn't having it. The gaze he gave her, the warmth of his hand against her face, the way his honeyed eyes seem to warm her soul with just a glance, even in the coldest of nights. Everything about him seemed to melt away the resolve that she had. There was a way about him that always brought down her walls and allowed for her to have a small moment of weakness. 

It wasn't that Aeryn was afraid of weakness - it was more that she felt proud to be responsible. She took the weight of responsibility and carried it proudly. When she fell, she got back up. When she was faced with a difficult decision, she used all of the knowledge she gained to make the best one. 

Having to feel as though someone was responsible for her, however, was still something she wasn't used to.

"Aeryn." Cullen's voice was firm, yet soft. There was no question in it, and there was no room for Aeryn to argue, either. He knew her too well, and knew that she would never let someone worry for her, not when there were others who needed their attention more. In the few years that they've known each other, he was the only person who had been able to get her to open up willingly.

The muscles in her neck betrayed her and allowed her face to rest into Cullen's hand, taking in a deep breath and smelling the trace amounts of leather from the gloves he usually wore. She knew she couldn't lie to him: this was a man who was a professional at discovering liars and having them explained their secrets. Even if she wasn't a mage, Aeryn wouldn't have been able to resist him for too long. The years of dealing with recruits, of being able to silence an army with a glare worked to his benefit, and it was a glance he wasn't afraid to use with her

"If it will make you stop questioning me," Aeryn sighed with a roll of her eyes, half-hearted to him, but to anyone else, it would have looked like she was about to punch him. "I was thinking about what my life was like before... all of this." She gestured her hand over the expanse of Skyhold, her eyes pausing for a moment longer on the mountains as they swallowed the last of the light. "I should have been the keeper of my clan by now, helping the others learn about our history, giving them a stronger connection to our gods, to our past. But what good am I to them now that I'm here? Aside from whatever aid from the Inquisition I can give them."

Letters had constantly kept her in contact with her clan, and she sent them whatever supplies they needed if the Inquisition had extra to spare. But it wasn't what Aeryn had thought she would have been doing when she was younger. The life she lived now wasn't the life she had prepared herself for ever since she was a young child.

"I never had the chance to give my people the greatest gift a keeper could give," Aeryn whispered, a traitorous tear heavy on her cheek and threatening to roll its way free and reveal the heavy heart that she had tried to hide. "I had never felt so connected with our history, with our gods than when I received my vallaslin. I brought my ink with me on every journey since the moment I received them, just in case I had gotten the chance to give someone this gift. But then the explosion at the enclave happened, and... And I lost my chance."

Aeryn tried to look everywhere but at Cullen. She knew what the Inquisition meant to him and how he joined willingly, throwing his whole heart into it. But she was the only Dalish elf in the entire Inquisition, and she was never asked if she wanted to join it. If she had, had a choice, if she had never had met Cullen in the first place, she wasn't sure if she would have stayed.

"Do you regret being here?" Cullen asked quietly, his face close to hers and his body shielding her smaller frame, his hand falling from her face to hold both of hers in his grasp. "Do you wish-"

"I can't change the past, Cullen," Aeryn cut off, her eyes finally locking with his, and her icy blue gaze melting into his golden ones. "And I'd be lying to say that I don't miss the chances that I might of had.

"But," she continued, pulling Cullen closer to her, holding onto his hands tightly so that she was sure they were the only thing holding her to that moment. "If I had the choice, I know the work I've done was important, and I wouldn't change the choices I've made. They are what brought my heart to you."

The two stayed wrapped in each other's arms long after the sun had set, sharing the comfort of each other's presence. Aeryn's mind stayed on the clan, but her heart belonged to Cullen and she would never trade that for anything. But the Commander's mind was on his Inquisitor, wondering how he would be able to help her. He would sacrifice everything to put her at ease.

\-----

"That wasn't nice! I bloody love it!"

It had been three days since that night on the crossway with Cullen, and Aeryn was trying her hardest to hold back a laugh as Sera tried to rub off the pink powder that covered her entire face. The two elves had been going back and forth with pranks, each trying to embarrass the other. The latest prank was Aeryn had filled a bucket with Orlesian blush, tossing it at Sera as she walked out of the Herald's Rest.

"I thought you would have approved," Aeryn finally chuckled, handing the other girl a clothe to wipe at her face. "It's only fair to stain your face since you've stained my favorite trousers red."

"You wear too much grey!" Sera retorted, getting most of the pink off, but they both knew that there would be a pink hue on her for the rest of the day. "You need a little more color." 

Aeryn rolled her eyes and looked over the entirety of Skyhold from the training yard. Every inch of it was something she was proud of, and all of it was hers. It was hers to command, hers to lead, hers to protect. And there were soldiers about her looking between her and Sera with utter shock on their faces.

"People are gonna think that Miss Inquissi-Pants isn't such a serious bitch," Sera stated, coming to stand next to the Inquisitor by the stone wall that ran along the upper level of Skyhold's courtyard. "Can't let that happen."

The Inquisitor's eyes landed on a particular group of recruits that were supposed to be practicing maneuvers with Iron Bull and the other Chargers, but had stopped for a moment to watch the commotion between her and Sera. In return, Aeryn casted a hard glare at them, one that she reserved specifically for the recruits and for noblemen's messengers that held ridiculous requests, and watched as they stumbled backwards and away from her as quickly as they could, stumbling over themselves as a captain barked an order for them to get back to practice.

"I think I solved that problem," Aeryn chuckled softly, leaning back on her heals as she rested herself against the stone wall. 

The two elves sat together and watched the training continue, Sera making inappropriate remarks whenever she could while Aeryn just took it all in. Studying their weaknesses, their strengths. Carefully, she was making notes in her head of what areas needed to be focused on for training in the coming weeks, and what she should bring up about it during the next meeting. 

"What're you mumbling on about?" Sera asked, poking Aeryn in her side with one of her stained fingers. 

"Some of them can't seem to brace themselves against a basic blast of magic," Aeryn huffed as she nodded toward where a recruit was knocked down by a shock from Dalish. "And then others don't seem to be able to avoid being in the way of Iron Bull's steps." As if to echo her thought, a small woman who was trying to sneak up on Bull yelped as the Qunari stepped backward and onto her feet. "And, honestly, do none of them know how to use a shield?!"

"I'll be sure to run them through a half dozen drills come first light in the morning."

Cullen came up to the two elves, handing off a report to a messenger. He had been given the day to catch up on some much needed paperwork, and with the Iron Bull taking the opportunity to give the recruits a beating, he put the spare time to good use. "How many of my soldiers are out of commission for the morning?"

"Only two, so far," Any replied as they heard another shriek from the training area, then a sudden silence. "Maybe three." A surgeon ran across in front of them, Sera following to join in on the excitement, leaving Aeryn and Cullen to look over. The Commander was trying his hardest to not go over, running a hand over his face while the Inquisitor just rolled her eyes again. "They'll all survive long enough to see the sun rise again."

"Yes... Well..." Cullen started again, this time stuttering as he tried to make his point for coming over to Aeryn in the first place. "I was hoping to speak with you in private for a moment."

Training was almost over for the day, and the pranks were - for the next few moments - done for the day. Aeryn's schedule was free till the late evening where she was supposed to have a private dinner with some Orlesian nobles who seemed to only have time to gossip about other nobles and who wore what to the latest gala. "If it keeps me away from Josephine's idea of a lovely evening," Aeryn remarked, straightening her back and stretching out her arms, "then you can have me for the rest of the evening."

"Unfortunately, I don't believe I'll be able to save you from tonight's soiree," Cullen chuckled as he led the Inquisitor away from the training field and toward the steps of the ramparts. "The only thing that may take you away from the dinner is an army of darkspawn or an invading Tevinter army."

"One can only hope for a mixture of both," Aeryn sighed heavily, a few soldiers glancing at her. Many of the soldiers and a few of the other serving members of the Inquisition were still unsure of when the Dalish elf was joking or being serious, her humor usually dry and sarcastic. And even the few who could pick up on the moments when she was trying to be funny or when she was being serious had difficulty in telling whether or not they should laugh in response. "What is it that you wanted to talk about?"

"You'll find out in a moment," Cullen answered, the edge of his lip twitching up as he held open to her the door to his office. "Just head up the ladder. I'll meet you there."

Aeryn sighed heavily, her shoulders saging a little as she allowed Cullen to escort her into the room. "Cullen. You know I would appreciate an evening with you over an evening with some nobles who-"

"Aeryn, I am not asking you to neglect your Inquisitorial duties," Cullen interrupted, unlacing one of his gauntlets and putting it on his desk. "Please, just go up stairs."

A heavy glare fell from Aeryn's eyes onto Cullen. She hated being instructed to do things as though she were a child, and surprises were something she liked even less. But, for Cullen, for her vhenan, she sucked in her pride and climbed the steps of the ladder to where Cullen's bedroom was.

Most evenings, the two would begin their nights in that room located above the Commander's office. They'd lay in the bed and go over reports, discuss the events and relive the meetings that they had spent only a few hours before dreading being in. This bedroom was a place they spent their time being them.

The Inquisitor's room was lavish and large, something that Aeryn was not used to. Growing up among the Dalish, she was used to having a room that was devoid of fine things, living among the wild and the stars. The bedroom she was given at Skyhold was filled with the fines of things from across Thedas: books, figurines, a bed that could easily fit four other elves. But even with the doors that led out onto the balconies open, Aeryn missed sleeping beneath the stars.

Which is why she spent much of her evening time in Cullen's loft. Even after all the finishing touches to Skyhold were completed, he refused to have the hole in his roof completely patched, but instead, insisted on having it constructed so that whatever elements hit the fortress wouldn't enter the room. His room became the space where Aeryn could sleep beneath the stars, giving her a space where she wouldn't have to live a new life that was encased in stone walls and doors, but a room that could be hers where she could look up at the stars.

The bed was made and candles lit when Aeryn entered the loft. Almost everything was in its rightful space except for a wooden table that had been moved closer to the bed. On it was an ornately carved wooden box, decorated with trees and halla, caravans and Aeryn's name. In the box were some of the most precious materials she had ever been given: inks as gold as honey, as red as blood, as green as the ivy that crawled its way up the stone walls that surrounded her new home. Inks of different colors in bottles and needles so thin and sharp were locked away in the box, and the box usually lived in the Inquisitor's desk in her own bed chamber.

"I have a favor to ask."

Cullen's voice startled Aeryn for she hadn't heard him come up the ladder behind her. He had taken off his entire armor and was standing to the side of her in just his tunic and breeches. He extended a hand to her, lifting hers gently to take what he gave her.

A golden coin, etched with the sun of the chantry symbol, fell into her palm. "When you spoke to me the other evening," Cullen whispered, watching Aeryn as she took in the curved lines of the round sun, it's rays stretching to the edges of the coin, "about how you had always wished to create a vallaslin for someone..."

The air thickened and warmed, and Aeryn became only aware of Cullen and how low his voice was. She looked up into his eyes, took in the way he gently enveloped her in her small frame but never overbearingly. "I have wanted to show you how I love the part of you that is you. The part of you that wants to feel the connection to your gods and to your people. The part of you that has never forgotten your heritage. And I am asking for you to help me find that connection with mine."

Puzzled, Aeryn looked back down to the coin. She knew about the Chantry and how they felt about changing faiths, but she also knew that Cullen would never change his faith. And she knew that he would never ask to have a mark of the Dalish that meant so much to her but had little meaning to him. "What are you asking of me?"

Cullen rested his forehead against Aeryn's, breathing her in and smiling down at her. "I am asking you to give me a vallaslin for the Chantry," he whispered, his thumb tracing along her the lines that ran across her cheek. "The design on that coin... I was hoping I could be the first you would bestow a vallaslin on. To give me the connection to Andraste and the Maker that you have with Mythal and your gods."

"You want to have a sun across your face?" Aeryn asked, looking up at him with just the faintest hint of merth in her eyes. "Isn't that what your circles did to mages to make them Tranquil?"

Cullen's back straightened suddenly, panic flooding his face. "No, no, no. That's not what I meant," he stuttered, not sure whether or not to take Aeryn seriously for a moment. "I mean, I know you're a mage and what the Circles had done to some is nothing to be jested about. I'd like it somewhere where it could be hidden if I wished-"

Aeryn chuckled, grasping Cullen by the front of his shirt and pulling him to her before she wrapped her arms around his strong torso and hugged him tightly. "You have not offended me, ma vhena," she softly said, running her fingers up and along his back. "And I would happily grant you what you wish. I believe..." She pressed her index finger in the space between his shoulders, the strong muscles barely moving underneath her delicate hand. "Ah, yes. This is the space where I think your vallaslin for Andraste would look nicely."

The gentlest of touches from Cullen's lip graced the top of her head before he pulled himself away, pulling his tunic over his head as he went to the bed. "How should I..." he questioned, gesturing to the bed.

"Place a pillow under your chest," she instructed, going to the box and carefully opening the lid. "Then just lay as comfortably as you wish. Depending on how much you move, you may have to stay in there for the rest of the evening."

"I am the commander for the army of the Inquisition, and before that Knight-Captain of the Templars at Kirkwall," Cullen boasted while doing as he was told, laying with a pillow under his chest as his honeyed eyes watched Aeryn pull out a long, sharp stick and two separate bottles of ink: one gold and one red. "I think I may be able to sit long enough to have a vallaslin placed on my back."

Blue eyes glared back at honeyed ones, the red lines on the elf's nose bending and chronicling with her skin. "It took nearly all day for the lines on my face to be bonded with me," she explained as she walked to the bed, crawling across it till she sat astride Cullen's lower back. "I've been shot by an arrow, stabbed by a dagger, and touched by the Fade. None of those can compare to having to sit perfectly still as you allow someone to strike a needle into your skin without flinching or moving."

Aeryn rubbed her hands over the muscular surface of Cullen's back. There had been many nights her fingers had ran across the hard ridges, and she memorized each and every scar that rested on his back. She rubbed her knuckles into the space between his shoulders, smoothing and relaxing the space that she had planned on tattooing. "You can still change your mind, Cullen," she whispered, bending down to rest her lips against his ear. "I do greatly appreciate you wanting to give me this moment, but-"

"This is what I want," Cullen cut off, his hand reaching back and gently grasping her knee. "I want to give you this moment, and I want to show you how much I appreciate your culture, your life. I am grateful that you accept mine so freely, and this is the best way that I can show how I accept yours. There is no changing my mind."

A smile snuck up on Aeryn's cheek as she gently kissed to top of Cullen's. "Alright," she whispered, sitting back and pulling her needle closer. "I'm going to design the simple like this." The elf ran her finger in a basic design of the sun, it's rays just extending past the curves of his shoulders and reaching the base of his neck. "That would be in red. And then smaller in gold." She moved her fingers again in the same design, smaller than before so it would be incased in the first sun. "It's basic, just the lines, but its the symbol of the chantry and its colors. It shouldn't take that long for me to do... But you are my first, so time is still at question."

Aeryn uncorked the bottle of red ink, gently sinking the tip of the needle into the bottle. The tip filled like the ink of a quill, staining the sheen metal and holding the ink as she brought it close to Cullen's skin. Ever so slightly, there was a quiver to her hand as she bent over, stealing a final glance at the coin she was supposed to be mimicking. "Final chance to back down."

He didn't say a word, but the hand that Cullen had left on Aeryn's knee gave her a firm squeeze, reassuring and coaxing the elf on. There was no escape from his will, and even though a part of her wanted nothing more than to give the mark to him, she was a bundle of nerves as she realized that she was closing the gap on her life that was training to become a Keeper. 

"Alright," Aeryn sighed as she pressed the tip of the needle flushed to Cullen's skin, giving it a tap to bury the ink just beneath. 

The muscles tensed, and then relaxed as the red ink blossomed beneath the needle, just around the heated skin that began to burn beneath it. Then she moved the needle a fraction higher, coaxing the rest of the ink from the needle and leaving a red line in its path.

Beneath her, Aeryn could feel the Commander's body tense, then relax with each new strike of the needle. "Are you alright?"

"Yes." Cullen's voice was strained, pinched, as he spoke. "Just more of a nuisance pain than anything more." He sighed heavily as Aeryn pulled the needle away to fill it with more ink. "Do you know why the Dalish began bestowing vallaslins?"

A smile twitched her lips upward as Aeryn went back into focusing on the curves of the sun burst design. "My people receive their vallaslins when they have come of age. They had spent months meditating on the gods, learning our history. I am unsure as to when the tradition began, but an elf who has a vallaslin has been able to withstand the pain that comes along with the vallaslin, knowing that their devotion to the god they wish to receive the ritual for is guarding them. It is an honor to our gods."

The two were silent for a moment, giving Aeryn a moment to focus on the first point of a ray for the sun. The point was sharp, curving just in time to meet the angle of the line that came before it. Till Cullen hissed a breath when she moved the needle a little more sharply than she had previously before.

"Ir abelas!" Aeryn chuckled, bending down to bury her lips into the tangle of blonde hair below her, kissing Cullen's scalp. "I'm sorry, dear brave Commander."

There was a soft snort as Cullen shifted his body to rest his arms beneath his head. "Finish your work, woman," he mumbled, trying and failing to sound angry at Aeryn. 

With a final kiss, this time to his cheek, Aeryn sat back up and went back to work, her fingers moving deftly and finishing the red sun quickly before moving onto the smaller golden one that would sit inside. As she went, she murmured encouraging words under her breath, mostly in elven which had seemed fitting for the time but occasionally in words that Cullen would recognize. Most of the time, however, they were too quiet for even Aeryn to hear herself.

Even on Cullen's reddened skin, the lines burned with brilliant colors across his back. Some crossed over scars while others paved a path to attach muscles together. The finished sun burst was small enough that it wouldn't be seen beneath a tunic, but large enough that he would be able to see it in a mirror if he turned. If looked at from a distance, the colors would bleed together to make it look like the sun was actually burning on his back, but close up, anyone would be able to see the separate lines, and how they only danced along one another, never actually meeting.

The only person that mattered who would ever see it so close up, however, was the woman who sat astride his back to design it.

"Alright," Aeryn sighed as she placed the needle back into the box, pulling out an opaque bottle after. "The design itself is finished, but your skin will be hot to the touch." She poured a small amount of white cream into her hand before placing the bottle back, then gently smoothed the lotion over the new design on Cullen's back. "This will help to seal the skin and hold in the colors, while also keep it from burning," she explained before moving off of Cullen. "I just recommend you rest for a small while before attempting to put your shirt back on."

The two laid next to each other, staring into each other's eyes, as Cullen's arm wrapped around Aeryn's small frame. He held her to his side, smiling down at her as he just watched the small elf that so many saw as a strict leader, but who he saw as the woman who had a softness and a gentleness that she so rarely let anyone else see. "Thank you."

Candle light danced across Aeryn's face, and Cullen could almost see the child-like smile that hid behind the peaceful, adult grin that she was giving him. "You shouldn't be the one thanking me for anything, ma vhenan," Aeryn whispered, her fingers brushing a piece of hair from his eyes as she rolled to lay almost beneath him. "I should be thanking you. You granted me my wish, gave me a piece of myself that I hadn't thought I would get a chance to have."

"Well, shall I thank you enough for making it attractive enough that it will bring an interest of the new Fereldan Captain who the Fereldan courts sent?" Cullen asked, a smirk on his lips and a glint to his eye. "The woman has seemed to have taken an interest to your force's commanding officer, and I believe Josephine would see it as undiplomatic if I wasn't acting like a kind host. I guess what I am asking is if-"

"You are not showing your vallaslin off to her," Aeryn stated, a hardness to her stare as she showed Cullen that his teasing was going to have repercussion. "I am yours, and you are mine. And that makes every part of you - the vallaslin included - as mine. Unless you want me to start accepting some of the possible marriage proposals that Josephine says arrive almost daily."

Cullen snorted, rolling his eyes at even the thought of Aeryn being able to accept a marriage proposal, let alone being able to tolerate someone. Quickly, he brushed his lips against Aeryn's before he moved his arm away from the path that blocked the Inquisitor from leaving the bed. "I believe, Inquisitor, that you are needed by our aforementioned ambassador for a dinner," he said, nodding toward the ladder that would take her away from him. "But I do expect you to return here before sun has fully set. I would like to watch the stars appear with you."

With a final kiss, Lavellan swung herself off the bed and straightened her clothes. "Well, if this is what the Commander wishes..." she started, trying to look as professional as possible.

But the professionalism drifted away as Aeryn's eyes landed on the lines on Cullen's back. A mark that was specifically hers, and yet it was now shared with him. The two were entwined in body now, not just in hearts. It, for a moment, allowed her to drop her usual hard shell as she looked back to Cullen's eyes. "For you, I'll do whatever you wish."


End file.
